All About Tripods - Or at Least the Affordable Ones

It was time to buy a tripod (my Christmas present from my husband). So I started the research online and quickly discovered that I did not know squat on tripods. I knew I wanted a strong and lightweight tripod. My previous one was an aluminum leg, a very cheap Carbon Fiber Vs Aluminum Tripod (less than $ 40) that I have used for the last eight years. It worked, but it was a little heavy and it was not the most robust tripod. Sometimes I had to hold it against my leg to keep it from trembling and forget to use it in the wind.

I soon learned that you can have a sturdy tripod, you can have a Best Lightweight Travel Tripods Reviews and you can have a cheap tripod, but you can only have two of the three with the "cheap" part coming out the window first. Scott Kelby and Joe McNally (two of the best photographers I follow) recommend the Manfrotto carbon fiber legs (around $ 375) and a Really Stuff ball head (that's the top part that moves, rotates and holds the camera ) (another $ 350 +) for a total of more than $ 700. Well, I do not know about you, but that's still out of my budget, so I had to look for some options, not so good, but a lot less expensive.

First, We Need to See When You Need a Tripod.

• You need it when it is getting dark or in low light.
• You need it when the shutter speed is slower than one divided by the focal length of your lens (oh no, math, see the examples below).
• You need a tripod if you are going to enlarge your photo a lot.

The first problem arises when you need to capture a lot of light in the aperture and you also need a slow shutter speed and a high ISO.

The second bullet describes the mathematics of the shutter speed as an example of a standard 50mm lens that needs more than 1/60 without a Gitzo GT1542T Traveler Tripod Review and with a 500mm telephoto lens that would need to be 1/500 or faster. The logic is that the longer lens magnifies any vibration in the camera or the way you hold it.

The last thing is that large enlargements will remove any minor imperfections, including camera shake at high magnification.

There are two types of tripod Heads: spherical heads and heads. The spherical head is simpler and provides a full range of motion for your camera. If you tend to shoot fast or when moving objects, you will like the head of a ball. With the panoramic heads, it has multiple locking levers that adjust the tray in different planes of movement to allow you to move the camera on the tripod. Pan's heads are quite useful for panoramic shots. The compensation is the speed, it takes more time to unlock and adjust the levers than with a ball head.

For the legs of the tripod, it is limited to aluminum or carbon fiber. Aluminum is quite strong, but it is compared with the most resistant carbon fiber. Aluminum is heavier and carbon fiber is much more expensive.

I went down to two options. I wanted a carbon fiber leg and chose a mold head. As the cost was a factor, my budget was in the area of $ 150 to $ 220 (sorry Scott and Joe). I'd love to have one of those $ 700 + babies, but it's not in the cards until I win the lottery. First I chose to reject the tripods of components where you buy the legs of one company and the heads of another. I wanted an integrated leg/head configuration.

View Additionally “Mefoto Roadtrip Tripod Monopod Kit”

My first choice was the Sunpak - Pro 523PX 64 "Tripod sold at Amazon and at Best Buy, it had a range of 64" inches and collapsed up to 12. "It weighed 4 lbs.The head of the cymbal was controlled by a pistol grip mechanism It seemed very slippery, retailing for around $ 199.

My other option was the Rocketfish 65 "carbon fiber kit, it reached 65.5" and weighed 5.8 lbs. Rocketfish is owned by Best Buy that sells its tripods exclusively. He listed at $ 150.00. So it was reduced to a unit that was a bit lighter and more expensive. The other unit was very solid, with a sturdy feel and a smooth movement lever that tilted to allow both portrait mode and landscape mode.

Both units would work for me and were within my budget. The Sunpak had that very good pistol grip mechanism and the Rockfish looked more solid. What was sold was the Christmas sale at Best Buy that lowered the Rockfish to less than $ 120? Well, sometimes you just have to buy the most economical one. These are not the only good and reasonable tripods in the market. I urge each of you to do your own research and learn from what you have read in the Ezine articles.

Sara Taylor is an experienced photographer from Arizona. Her photography is about nature and events like sports. She writes about photography and technology on her blog and shows her work in a photography site. You can get more information about Sara on her blog at “Carbon Fiber Vs Aluminum Tripod”